Battletech - Also known as Trannytech
- Thread starter Snowflake Buster
- Start date
To me, misjumps are a very fascinating aspect of BT - and for that matter Traveller.
The jumpdrive in Traveller works somewhat similar to how it works in BT with one notable exception:
In order to jump, the ship creates a tiny pocket-universe which it jumps into, spends about a week there and then jumps back out into regular space. The amount of time it spends in this jumpspace will usually be roughly the same amount of time it will take to pop back out, but there's always a little give or take.
During a misjump, much like in BT, you might end up in the wrong place (which can also extend your jump by several order of magnitudes beyond what is usually possible in the game), but there are some really fascinating things that can happen with how long you're stuck in the jumpspace bubble.
It might be that you are only stuck there for a few hours (or even shorter) and pop back into existence, but 2 weeks went by in regular space. This can also be the other way around, where travel was instantanuous, but you were stuck in jumpspace for 2 weeks.
You can also be stuck in jumpspace for far longer than the regular time. There are reports of ships that were stuck in jumpspace for months (while the ship was gone from regular space for only a week or so). One such example mentions a ship registering the signature of a jump, but all that popped back into regular space was a quickly dissipating cloud of sub-atomic particles which would indicate that the ship spent trillions of years in jumpspace until even the matter it was made of broke down.
Once the ship is in Hyperspace, there is nothing you can do from within your ship, the jump will take however long it will take and it will end up whereever it will end up.
Another interesting aspect is the fact that the pocket-universe created to jump is literally a bubble inflated with hydrogen gas that extends only a few meters beyond the ship and getting close to the boundary will have terrible effects on the human body. Like it will mangle your limbs and make you go crazy, if you're getting too close. If you go a little closer, you will die a horrible death. Sometimes the bubble doesn't form correctly and will just cut off parts of the ship.
It might be that you are only stuck there for a few hours (or even shorter) and pop back into existence, but 2 weeks went by in regular space. This can also be the other way around, where travel was instantanuous, but you were stuck in jumpspace for 2 weeks.
You can also be stuck in jumpspace for far longer than the regular time. There are reports of ships that were stuck in jumpspace for months (while the ship was gone from regular space for only a week or so). One such example mentions a ship registering the signature of a jump, but all that popped back into regular space was a quickly dissipating cloud of sub-atomic particles which would indicate that the ship spent trillions of years in jumpspace until even the matter it was made of broke down.
Once the ship is in Hyperspace, there is nothing you can do from within your ship, the jump will take however long it will take and it will end up whereever it will end up.
Another interesting aspect is the fact that the pocket-universe created to jump is literally a bubble inflated with hydrogen gas that extends only a few meters beyond the ship and getting close to the boundary will have terrible effects on the human body. Like it will mangle your limbs and make you go crazy, if you're getting too close. If you go a little closer, you will die a horrible death. Sometimes the bubble doesn't form correctly and will just cut off parts of the ship.
As much as I like the K-F-Drive I think Traveller's way of doing FTL is more badass and has more interesting possibilities behind it.
If I was playing an RPG set in BT, I think I'd houserule a combination of BT and Traveller FTL rules.
As for ships misjumping in BT, that has some really interesting opportunities for the setting as well:
It gives you great opportunities for stuff like ghostships drifting through space or unknown colonies on faraway planets set up by survivors of a misjump.
I would not be surprised if in the setting of BT, there'd be countless stories of survivors of misjumps hunkering down on some remote planet, that send out an SOS via regular radio transmission and then hoping that the signal will be picked up in some other star system several lightyears away, so someone comes and picks them up, once the signal has travelled all that distance.
Something I wondered about: How much energy does a jump require and how much energy does a DropShip's reactor provide?
Like I imagine a JumpShip with a busted reactor, that is forced to tap into the reactors of the attached DropShips (maybe even the reactors of the vehicles and mechs aboard the Dropships) to slowly charge the K-F-Drive.
A Jumpship with giant solar sails and a massive reactor takes several days to charge, so daisychaining together everything vaguely fusion reactor shaped would most likely take forever to charge the drive, but the idea is still kinda interesting to me.
I think a flying cruise-ship-like Zeppelin would be in higher demand. Less shakey (additional seats in a mech are called rumble seats for a reason), they'd offer more luxury, a better view, better accomodations and carry more people (which in turn increases revenue).
But then again, there's gimmicky tourism stuff all over the world, so it's not like any of what you said is unfeasible, it's just highly specific to a very narrow range of customers.
In BT, the belle of the ball is the mech, but I'll be damned if I wouldn't love to play an Elite: Dangerous like game set in BT.
Or some space shooter with realistic, newtonian flight physics. BT offers such a rich and vibrant world, but some aspects are just not well explored when it comes to games (and I guess the audience for such games is too small to ever change this...).
Sure, zeppelins could work too. I'm sure people would take zeppelin tours if they could!
But I think my fellow Kiwis are really underestimating the value and demand that there would be for Mech tours.
It's a Mech. Mechs are inherently cool; they're so cool, that an entire franchise was built around them. They exist in a galaxy that has tanks, bombers, and orbital spaceships capable of glassing entire continents, yet despite all the practical problems with using Mechs (see the age-old debate, "Mechs vs Tanks"), they are still the undisputed kings of the battlefield. Everyone in the galaxy, Clan and Sphere, worships the ground they stomp on, but NOT everyone gets a chance to ride in one. Hence - tourism!
In fact, if anything, I might be thinking too conservatively here.
For example, in 3025, there's not going to be a market for soccer moms driving refurbished Locusts' around. That would be silly, obviously. But in the 3050s+, after the manufacturing boom, maybe instead of just catering to the elite, there'd even be a Karen market for leisure Battlearmor and Mechs? Especially on a manufacturing world with a robust upper-middle class: drive your kids to soccer practice, strapped to the rumbleseat on the back of your Cavalier Mk2. Be the toast of the golf course by pulling up to the valet in a Sport Utility Flea. I could even imagine things getting so bad that Space California has to pass ordinances against driving bright orange Urbanmechs within megacity limits:
"Urbanmechs are vehicles of war! They have no place on our streets."
"Yeah, but I want my kids to be safe!"
"Your kids, maybe, but look at the other guy's kids; 9 out of 10 Urbanmech crashes result in entire city blocks getting pulverized!"
Typical jump drive charging actually doesn't use the reactor at all. It can be done, and a hell of a lot faster at that, but "hot charging" the drive that way is known to risk damaging the drive.
In other news, having spent the last 2 days powering through Hour of the Wolf, here's a quick rundown of what's going on in the sphere:
The Wall is slated to go down no later than early 3153, unless Alaric decides to start scrapping his own ships for KF drives.
Jade Falcon is down to 120-odd warriors, plus sibkos and solahma. They have had a change of leadership, and are now sworn to the ilClan
Ghost Bear is being Ghost Bear, despite Delvin Stone's attempts to bait them into joining the boogaloo on Terra in a mad bid to unfuck his situation.
Snow Raven is planning to swear themselves to the ilClan, as soon as they receive certain assurances.
Hell's Horses are mad as fuck, and will probably roll on Terra.
The CapCon is poised to strike at Terra, and is possibly nearing figuring out how to circumvent the Wall.
The FedSuns are getting DP'd by Liao and Kurita, and in no position to do anything.
The Combine has yet to make any solid plans at this time.
The FWL are skittish about making sudden moves after how poorly the Jihad turned out for them.
The Lyrans are making cautious moves into Falcon territory, and may go on the full offensive once word of how things turned out gets to them.
Sea Fox is all but literally rubbing their hands and cackling about how much money they're going to make.
That would be interesting, but it would have to be a game very heavily based on both politics and logistics. It can't be one of those games where you can just amass a deathball of warships and roll over the enemy. You have to push a proper front or you'll be isolated and picked apart. And you'll need a whole "politics and sneaky shit" layer on top of everything. So many things in BattleTech happened because someone keeping or discovering the right secrets, after all.
So it would be a pretty micromanagement-heavy 4X. Which, given the kind of autist likes BT, should be fine.
As @A_Callow_Youth inferred, it's not so much an issue of energy (although it does take a lot of power to do charge a jump drive), but time. If you try to charge a jump drive too quickly, it'll be damaged. The sail is there as a fuel-efficiency measure instead. Most of the mass of a JumpShip's engine is actually dedicated to the stationkeeping drives and they carry very little fuel. Most don't even carry enough to be able to charge their own drive without the solar sail (warships often carry more, for obvious reasons). For example, an Invader massing 152,000 tons only carries 50 tons of hydrogen and burns off about 2 tons per day just holding position while it recharges. That's why shooting off (or diving through) the solar sail of a JumpShip is a favored tactic of both military and pirate aerospace pilots to keep their target from getting away.
Anyway... in your example, every single fusion reactor in the vicinity would run out of hydrogen long before they could charge the drive. Long story short: carry spare sails and thank the heavens for recharge stations.
FedSuns getting shafted? wtf I love the ilKhan Era now.
(Seriously, I'm fine with Davion fans and I like autocannons as much as the next guy, but the FedSuns have gotten by on their hero status way too often.)
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I kinda liked the idea of a stranded crew slapping together every source of energy they go in order to charge the FTL drive, but I never really contemplated the fuel consumption. A fusion reactor might be efficient as hell, but the amount of energy required seems to be even more vast then I imagined.
What is the operational range of a mech anyway? How often does he need to refuel? It never really gets mentioned in the novels and in the game, it's most likely never really relevant to keep track.
Fuel-wise? Technically unlimited. BattleMechs carry electrolysis plants that can be used to break up light water into fuel for the reactor. Even if you're stuck in a desert planet, the MechWarrior would be dead long before the 'Mech ran out of fuel, because...
(TechManual, p.35)
A 'Mech is much more likely to run out of lubricants for its joints before it runs out of fuel in the field. So, if the pilot was hopped up on enough amphetamines and had enough powerbars stuffed in the glove compartment, it's likely a well-maintained 'Mech on Planet Cueball could keep running for days on end.
I'd be surprised if there wasn't a Solaris mod for it.
How does the phrase "New Avalon has fallen" sit in your mouth?
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